HORTICULTURAL BULLETINS. 345 



The orchard subsequent to planting should be cultivated as carefully as a field of 

 corn. The practice of successful growers varies a good deal in this particular. 

 Some cultivate the orchard from the start without crops; others plant corn or 

 toniatofS between the trees for the first two or three years— that is, until the 

 orchard comes into bearing. There is no objection to this, provided the soil is 

 strong and well fertilized; on the contrary, there appear to be some advantages. 

 There is a choice, however, in crops that should be grown, and on no account should 

 potatoes or wheat be cultivated iu orchards. So soon as the trees come into bearing 

 no crop of any sort should be grown between them, but each year the orchard 

 should I'eceive a shallow spring plowing and frequent cultivation until July. Most 

 of the growers in the middle eastern states prefer not to cultiv.ate the soil later than 

 this, but in some regions it is the practice to cultivate almost the year round, and 

 even in Delaware very successful growers have followed this practice, keeping the 

 soil stirred from early spring until late autumn. As a rule, deep plowing should be 

 avoided. The peach tree is almost as sensitive to clean cultivation as cotton or 

 tobacco, and no man can expect to be very successful in the cultivation of the peach 

 ■who allows his trees to stand in sod or fails to give them clean tillage during at 

 least a part of the season. 



Opinions differ as to the proper method of pruning. When the trees are planted 

 they should be cut bacli to within one or two feet of the ground, the entire branched 

 top being removed. The remaining buds will push vigorously, and three or four 



of these should be selected to form the new top, care 

 being taken that they come out from different sides of 

 the stem and not too close together, but at a distance 

 of several inches up and dOAvn the trunk. When the 

 branches from these buds have grown to be several 

 inches in diameter they should support a spreading or 

 vase-shape top (figs. 1, 2, 3). The proper starting of the 

 new top is a matter of some importance, for if all of 

 the branches have been allowed to grow out from 

 nearly the same point on the trunk, when the tree 

 has matured, the giving way of a single limb under 

 weight of fruit or stress of wind is very likely to 

 involve all the rest and split the trunk from top to 

 bottom. Such mishaps could be readily avoided by 

 starting the main branches at different heights. 

 For orchards on most of the peach lands of the 

 Fig. 8.-Black spot of the peach eastern states, comparatively little pruning appears to 

 Cladosporiurti carpophilum. be necessary. Some growers practice "shortening in" 



annually over the whole top, but in general this is 

 not desirable. However, if the tree has made an exceedingly vigorous growth it 

 gan be practiced to good advantage, and is generally best done in early spring. 

 The aim in pruning should be to get a tree free from dead wood and full nearly to 

 the main trunk of small branches capable of bearing fruit. Care should be taken 

 in pruning to avoid cutting away bearing branches from the base of the limbs, 

 for by this method long, straggling branches, having fruit-bearing limbs at the top 

 only, are often produced. Some growers prune the trees so that the main trunk 

 shall be four or five feet high, but in general this is not to be recommended. It is 

 much better to make them branch low in vase form. The only advantage of the 

 other method is greater ease in cultivating close to the tree, and it has on the whole 

 disadvantages which more than counterbalance, one of which is the greater expos- 

 ure of the trunk to hot suns and another the increased danger of injuring the bark 

 of the tree by plows and cultivators. 



Some words are necessary on the use and misuse of fei'tilizers. Unless the 

 trees are on strong land it will be necessary, as soon as they come into bearing, 

 and yearly thereafter, to give them each spring or autumn some special fertilizer. 

 There can be no objection to the use of well-composted barnyard manure. Where 

 this is not procurable dependence must be put on clover and commerical fertilizers, 

 taking care always that the latter are obtained from reliable sources. In general 

 the dependence should be on potash salts and phosphates rather than on nitrogen- 

 ous fertilizers. The peach can be injured readily by excess of nitrogen. Its effect 

 upon the trees is to produce an excessive growth of wood and foliage at expense 

 of fruit. Fifty to a hundred pounds per acre of nitrate of soda or its equiyalent 

 in dried blood or sulphate of ammonia is usually as much nitrogenous fertilizer as 



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